It’s a tool to develop a story, but it’s lazy to have the rape of one character be the motivation for another. That’s a trite revenge story at best. It’s a much more interesting story to show how that rape affects the victim, but it’s also much harder to approach and portray those emotions truthfully. The fact is,…

Not a fan of the decision to allow weapon repairing mid-battle. I like the fact that the Witcher games force you to go into battle prepared. No chugging health potions or changing clothes while people are trying to kill you.

Eh, that one’s a grey area for me. Yes, her character only existed to be killed for the final reveal, but the reveal being that both Pitt and Spacey must take their places as the final deadly sins was clever enough that it avoids the “women in refrigerators” trope.

Right, but he also implies that it should just be avoided all together. That might be good advice for novice writers, but I think it is certainly possible to write a compelling and narratively important rape scene.

I’m not talking about the GoT scene, I’m talking about the scene the author describes in his hypothetical novel.

Yes, it would be one of the most brutal ways to motivate your character, but it’s a trope that’s been done a million times. If that’s the story you’re telling, maybe consider telling a story that isn’t built on a cliché.

I think it’s more about how the scenes are handled. Most writers aren’t clever or subtle enough to make a rape scene anything more than cheap motivation for other characters or a traumatic experience for the raped character to overcome. I think there are legitimate stories to be told than involve rape, but they have…

I'm not saying it's off the table, but unless handled particularly well it comes across as a lazy "women in refrigerators" trope.

Maybe the issue wasn't that you were planning to write a rape scene, but that the only purpose for your rape scene was to motivate a male character. It's not the rape scene that's the problem. It's the fact that you, the author, should have more respect for your characters than to simply make them objects that you use…

Get over yourself.

You don’t know that it added nothing. Unless you have a fucking crystal ball, you don’t have any way to know how this scene will drive the rest of the narrative. It could, in retrospect, be very important for reasons we don’t yet know about. Without knowledge of the future, you’re literally not qualified to make that…

Then you clearly don't have a proper understanding of feminism.

We won't know how necessary it is until we see where the story goes.

None of which changes the fact that she got where she is because of nepotism.

No, but you have a right to keep yourself alive, and that means a right to the basic necessities of life.

You have a right to access to clean water.

A bad story is a bad story, after all. No matter what the outcome is.

1. I didn’t say anything about “official” or “certified” qualifications.

And I am talking about serving the narrative, so I don’t know why you keep changing the subject. As I said, I can’t judge the quality of the scene because I haven't seen it yet.

I haven’t watched the scene yet, it’s DVRed at home for when I get off of work. I’d be very surprised if this one scene can completely eliminate her entire character development, however.